FOR A FEW MINUTES, NINA IS STUNNED. Sure, she pretends like she has her shit all together as the two of them wonder through the large interior of the ship, walking over towards Tony and the wizard, but in reality, her heartbeat was beating erratically against her chest and she was absolutely incredibly stunned.
Not only stunned that she let that kiss happen, but stunned that, despite her words, no bone in her body regretted it at all.
Was it a stupid decision? Yes. Was it careless, getting distracted at the intimate sensation of Peter tucking her hair behind her ear? Also yes.
But did she regret it? Fuck no.
"Found him," Peter says after a few minutes of mindlessly walking around the ship, pointing over towards the lower floor of the ship wherein they see the older man, talking to a cape like a madman. It almost makes Nina chuckle - the sight of eccentric billionaire Tony Stark talking to an inanimate object was a bit hilarious.
"So," the boy turns around at the sound of her voice, "Since our asses are probably dead if he finds out we're here, we need to decide who..."
Peter blinks at the curve of Nina's lips, brain not even attempting to register the words coming out of her mouth as he stares at the permanent pout itched on her face. Peter thinks that maybe he should be upset at Nina for doing what she did best - run away form her feelings - but ultimately, he feels kind of cheeky.
"Yeah, sure." he mumbles absentmindedly,
"You'll do it?" Nina's eyes light up slightly, voice a little high pitched, which makes her clear her throat. "You'll do it. You'll break the news that we decided to come back here to Tony," she repeats, and this time, she makes sure that her tone is low.
"Sure," he attempts to sound nonchalant while his brain inwardly curses himself for getting so distracted that he basically sent himself into a death sentence. The mask forms on his face instantly - something he has yet to be used to, as he quietly sticks a web up the ceiling, balancing on the white solution as he glances back at Nina one last time. "Mr. Stark loves me."
Nina snorts, knowing well that Tony loves her more, but does nothing to contradict Peter's sentence, instead, watches the boy zoom down to where the billionaire is standing.
She stifles a laugh when she distantly hears Peter stuttering from where she is standing, accompanied with Tony's very pissed off voice.
When she flies down next to the two boys, a part of Nina is relived that she's there to save Peter's ass before he could fuck things up even more, "—and this suit is ridiculously intuitive by the way, so if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here."
"You," Tony is no longer showing the boy any attention now that the spotlight is turned on Nina - whose helmet disappears into her suit, much like Peter's. "You. I expected better judgement from you. Not only do you completely disobey my orders—"
"— a little dramatic, you never ordered anything as far as I can remember."
"—but you decide to bring him along," Tony points at Peter, who's mouth is agape as he tries (and fails) to slip himself in the conversation. "I don't know if you know this but your mother visited me the other day and threatened to slit my throat if I put you in any danger whatsoever and now you're in space—"
"It was my idea, actually." Peter rushed in between the two of them, ignoring the lingering questions at the back of his head. (Mother? But wasn't Nina's mother locked up in the Raft?)
"Your idea?"
"His idea," Nina went along with the lie, crossing her arms in front of her chest. It was no one's idea, actually; it had just happened. One moment they were flying back to earth and another moment Peter had webbed the side of the spaceship, hand tight around Nina's waist as he pulled the two of them back inside.
It was a primal instinct and they went for it.
"This isn't Coney Island, or some field trip. This is a one-way ticket. Do you two hear me?" Tony exclaimed and turned his body backwards, balling up his fists; it was evident that he was trying to suppress his anger. "Don't pretend you both thought this through."
"I did think this through."
"I'm going to be honest for the first time forever, but I'll admit, I did not think this through."
Out of all the times. Out of all the damn times when Nina decides to be truthful and she's using it to be a menace. With a quiet whine of her name, he shot her a look of desperation as if he would say anything to get Nina to shut up.
Nina pursed her lips, looking anywhere but at him. But as she did so, Peter heard something faint: there, the pittering of her heart, a little too fast.
The boy bites the inside of his cheek, mentally trying to remind himself that this was a serious matter and he needed to focus.
"Well, I thought this through." Peter mumbled. Unfortunately for him, the words he chose were not the ones Tony was looking for. "You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood."
An akward pause, accompanied by the cringe in Nina's features (her heartbeat had calmed a little bit now), makes Peter realize that the statement sounded way better in his head.
"Okay, that didn't really make any sense but you know what I'm trying to say."
Judging from the way Tony let's out a tired sigh, Nina knows that he has given up on trying to discipline either of them. Sure, he should've done this earlier; they were already in space and there was literally nothing either the three of them could do to go back - but hey, at least he was good now.
"But!" Tony stuck his finger up, gaining both of their attention, "You and Peter stay together the entire time, understood? I don't want to see any one of you do anything to jeopardize this mission or else you two are getting a time out. I'll take away your suits too," he said, pointing at the two of them.
"Yes, Mr. Stark."
"Sure."
"Now Nina," the man gently grabs her by her wrist, tugging her over to the edge of the ship where she's given a clear view of what's happening down there: the alien taunting (she assumes) the wizard as he shuts his eyes in pure agony. "The wizard over there is in pain. You can take that away, right? Do it. Now."
"Okay," Nina replies nonchalantly, her eyes beginning to glimmer that milky white once again. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. Nina isn't too sure if she's saying it out loud or if it's all in her head, but she repeats it again and again and again just to make sure. It doesn't hurt:
Her eyes begin to fade back to brown as the wizard takes in a not too obvious sigh of relief, features still contorted as if to mimic a person who is in pain.
"Someone give this man an Oscar," the girl mumbles sarcastically, "I'm done. What else?"
Peter brushes past her, taking a peek for himself - which, for some reason, makes Nina jump slightly, pulling her arm away while Peter peeks over like it's nothing.
What the fuck?
When Peter glances back at her, her eyes are already trailed on the floor. It's like she's hypersensitive to every little thing the boy does; when he'd glance at her direction, when he'd stand beside her, or literally any contact makes her nerves jump and it's pissing her off.
"You sure he's okay? I dunno... seems like he's still in pain to me." A lie. Peter knows that the wizard isn't in any pain at all; but he's seen Nina avoiding his gaze and it's brushing his ego a little too much.
Plus, when she wasn't yelling at him, Nina had a pretty voice.
"He is," Nina jumps on the ledge again, avoiding his intense gaze. Why was he looking at her? Shouldn't he be looking at the wizard? "Lowering of the eyebrows, squeezing of the eyes, wrinkling of the nose, raising of the upper lip and opening of the mouth - look at his facial features. They aren't twitching like it was a few seconds ago. He's controlling it which means that he's faking the whole thing."
"That's actually a really good observation..."
"Yeah, Peter. Just because I'm not science smart doesn't mean I'm not smart at all." she said with a forced eye-roll, shivering involuntarily when their suit covered hands brushed together. "Ask Tony. He's handing Stark Industries over to me when he dies."
"One, I did not agree to that," Tony stood from his crouching position, ushering the two of them to scoot over to the edge. "Two, we need to get rid of the ugly guy. Do any of you have any brilliant plans you wanna share with the class?"
Peter examines the situation for a bit, Nina watching as the gears turn in his mind. Eventually, he stands up with a determined look on his face, "Did you ever see this really old move called Aliens?"
...
Nina crouches underneath a giant piece of metal, just a few meters behind Tony who's trying to find an appropriate time to barge in and distract the creature.
"God, I hope he dies," Nina mumbles absentmindedly, not really putting a thought into her statement. Besides, it wasn't like she had meant it; she had thought of how annoying it was getting herself thrown into the side of the ship and said the sentence off-handedly.
But to her utmost horror and surprise, the alien suddenly stands stark still, eyes blinking desperately until his whole body twitches and falls to the floor; unmoving.
Tony blinks at the sight of the alien lying still on the floor, helmet disappearing into the rest of his suit as he did so. His eyes were as wide as saucers; almost looking like a cartoon character as he took a few cautious steps towards the creature, weapon thrusted incase something happens.
"Well that went a little easier than I thought it'd be," the older man says, a scrunch on his features appearing as she lifts the bony hand, wiggling it a bit to confirm his death. "Nina, I think you killed it."
"Cmon," Peter whines, jumping down from the ledge where he din on. "We had a plan! A pretty good one at that."
Nina tried to bite off the sinking feeling she was getting at the sight of the boy's wide eyes, a pit full of butterflies wanting to spring from their net. "I didn't kill it - okay? I wasn't doing anything. Maybe the alien is sick."
"I heard you whispering, Nina." Tony deadpans, letting go of it's limb. "You definitely killed him. But just in case..." he kicks over the dead body, "You two find a way to blast it in space. I'll work on the needles."
...
The atmosphere is a little awkward, after all, they did just have an unprompted let's-relive-a-year-worth-of-tension-by-jumping-on-each-other kiss, and that don't really know what to do with themselves just yet. It doesn't change even when they drag the alien over to a garbage chute, throwing it's body inside and pressing a button for it to be blasted in space, ensuring it's death.
"So..." Peter started, eyeing the sight of the alien disintegrating in space through the window, "We kissed."
Nina flushed.
"Goodbye, Peter," the girl was about to run back towards Tony and save herself from her impending embarrassment, before Peter caught her by grabbing her shoulder.
"Nina," he warns, keeping his grip soft - he knows that Nina's nanotech suit is protecting her, but he doesn't want to risk her getting hurt - "You can't run away from this. Figuratively and literally since we're a thousand miles away from Earth. We're stuck together so the least we can do is talk about it."
The moment those words came out of Peter's mouth Nina concentrated on the hand resting on her shoulder.
She looked from Peter's hand to the boy's face a couple of times with a glare surfacing on her face. Peter took the hint and retreated his hand, despite hearing her heartbeat going crazy in her chest.
"What is there to talk about?" she questions through gritted teeth, "You kissed me. I kissed you back. It was a heat of the moment and I felt nothing. We were just tired."
"Tired?" The boy repeats, eyebrow raising at the words Nina had chose; normally, he'd be a nervous wreck by now but he knew that Nina was lying - the increased heartbeat, the inability to look into his eyes for more that six seconds, the aggressiveness - the signs were right in front of him. "Cause I definitely felt someone slipping a little tou—"
"Goodbye, Peter!" Nina yelled harshly, her helmet covering her face once again which she was incredibly grateful for considering the fact that her cheeks had burned too much.
She heard Peter snort. It was quiet - rarely there, but it reached her ears nonetheless, and she threw him a scathing look as she walked past the boy, jumping over to the ledge where Tony and the wizard stood.
Once Tony had safely removed the last bit of micro-needles that pricked the wizard's face, the man had shoved past Tony, walking towards the front of the ship wherein the controls stood. "We gotta turn this ship around."
"Yeah. Now he wants to run." Tony said sarcastically as he started walking away from the guy.
"No, I want to protect the stone." Unnamed wizard shoots back, eyes traveling to the thing that hung around his neck.
Nina was right. It was a cute necklace. There was a faint green glow that accompanied the weird symbol - and for a single second, she finds herself not caring for whatever bullshit went on around her and only thought of how hot she'd look wearing that piece of jewelry on her neck.
"Nina, come here!" Tony yelled, pushing her forwards so that she was closer to the wizard now. "And I want you to thank the kid now. Go ahead, she's listening."
"For what?" The wizard shot her a pointed look, enough for her to be intimidated but not enough for her to cower back in fear. "Getting me sent to space when she could've prevented this whole thing while we were all at Earth?"
The tone he was sending her was enough for the bubbling resentment to reach it's surface; and when Tony opened his mouth to speak, Nina held up her left hand, since if this bitchy wizard guy was going to be an asshole to her then so fucking be it. She could handle this. She could act like an adult and kindly tell him that thanking her would literally be the bare minimum.
"Fuck you!"
Okay, maybe she was being a bit childish, but she didn't care.
"I'm the reason you're alive. I'm the reason that you aren't in any pain right now and if you wanna feel how much those micro-needles hurt and tell me that you could've handled it by yourself, be my guest. I'll bring that pain back and you better make sure I don't see you shutting your eyes in agony." Nina shot venomously, shoving him with her suit-covered hand. "Do you wanna know what they were planning? They were going to nearly blast you in space so who saved your magical ass? Me."
She watched in amusement as the wizard clenches his jaw, obviously trying to stop himself from saying the wrong thing.
"Admit it," Tony chimed in, participating in the game of let's all corner the wizard and piss him off until he cracks. Nina didn't miss the sort of...proud? Look on his face. "You should've ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you, you refused."
"Unlike everyone else in your life," his eyes wander off to Nina for a minute, then back at Peter. "I don't work for you."
"And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut, billions of miles from Earth with no backup." Tony deadpans, rolling his eyes. Normally, Nina never understood why he kept doing that but now, as she listened to this seriously egotistical wizard go on and on, she understood the billionaire to a certain level.
"I'm back up!" Peter, who had been stunned to silence after watching Nina threaten the wizard raised his hand.
"No. You're a stowaway," Tony grumbles without sparing him a glance, too busy glaring daggers at the wizard's head. "The adults are talking."
The word adults immediately sends the boy into a defensive spiral considering that they had a sixteen year old stuck in the middle of the conversation; the words coming out of his mouth without him thinking. "Nina is my age."
"I'm technically three months older than you," Nina avoids eye contact, opting to stare at the ground instead. "So shoo, kid."
"Kid?" Peter repeats, "You know when my birthday is?"
"I'm confused as to the relationship here," the wizard but in rudely, "I mean, what are they? Your wards?"
"I'm a fucking Avenger, thank you very much. Who the fuck do you think you are?" Nina grumbles, pointing the the red accessory that went behind his back. "A cape? Really? Ever watched The Incredibles? Capes are for losers and it'll get you sucked inside a—"
"We aren't wards." Peter interrupts her before she creates another fight (which he knows she will), "We haven't officially met. I'm Peter, by the way," he points to the only girl in the ship, "and that mouthy girl is Nina."
"Doctor Strange." the wizard — Strange — responds curtly.
"Oh, so we're using our made-up names." Peter nodded, puffing his chest out to seem a bit more intimidating. "I'm Spider-Man, then."
Strange glances at the girl, eyebrows raised as if he's giving her a cue to introduce herself.
"You know who I am."
Strange rolls his eyes at the teenage girl's smugness, mumbling to himself about something Nina cared too little for to listen to; something about her big head.
"This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing's on autopilot." Tony concludes, interrupting Strange from his complaints.
"Can we control it? Fly us home?" Tony doesn't make eye contact, too preoccupied by the controls of the ship. "Stark?" Strange persists with a pointed eye.
"Yeah," Tony mumbles absentmindedly, still not sparing him a glance.
"Can you get us home?"
Peter jumps right next to her; causing the hairs behind the nape of her neck stand up. It was stupid - kind of like her own Spider-Sense, but this time, she was extremely hypersensitive to every small thing that Peter did.
Stupid. Nina scoots away from the boy, feeling her stomach churn when his gaze ends up on her for a second before he glances back at Strange and Tony. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
"Yeah I heard you. I'm thinking...I'm not so sure we should." Tony thankfully interrupted the silence that was becoming too unbearable, much to Nina's relief.
"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos." her eyes scrunch at the unfamiliar name. "I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."
"No. It's you who doesn't understand." Tony snapped, backing up against Strange while his fist clenched under his suit. "Thanos has been inside my head for six years... Since he sent an army to New York and now he's back! And I don't know what to do."
Nina's eyes widen - this may be the first time she's heard Tony admitting to not knowing something.
"So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what he can do." What the can do referring to the mass destruction they've caused at Earth in the matter of minutes. "At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"
"Who's Thanos?" Peter whispers; visibly very confused.
"I dunno either," Nina replies truthfully. It was all confusing to her as well - who the fuck was Thanos and why were they supposed to fight him?
A pregnant pause echoes for a second until Strange finally speaks up. "Alright, Stark. We go to him."
Tony looks like he's about to speak, until Strange beats him to it once again. "But you have to understand....if it comes to saving you or the kids or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let one of you die. I can't, because the fate of the universe depends on it."
This feels like an extremely climatic moment and Nina bites her tongue to stop herself from saying a snarky remark.
"Good. Nice. Moral compass. We're straight." Tony attempts to sound casual as he turns to Peter, putting his outstretched arm briefly on either shoulder. "Alright, kid. You're an Avenger now."
From the bottom of her heart, Nina feels utterly betrayed; but seeing Peter Parker proudly grin disintegrates that annoyance just a little bit.